The Penny

About 4 years ago, when the new penny came out and there were commercials for it, I sent an email to the White House.
It basically voiced my opinion on how dumb I thought it was that there was a commercial campaign for the penny which is worthless before it's even made.
In the email I also suggested the President wear a purple or gold tie because I was getting tired of all the boring muted red and blue.  There ARE more colors to wear.  Even in D.C.

Recently, the White House did another Google+ Hangout where the President did a Q&A.  This was one of the Q's that he A'd:


Cousin Deb:  you'll recognize the Q'er as being John Greene who wrote "The Fault In Our Stars" (which I haven't read yet).

50 Shades of Tonjes

I haven't done YouTubesday in a while, and one of my faves recently put up a couple vids of her reading 50 Shades of Grey and it cracks me up.
Willie (ass) gave me the trilogy for my birthday and I haven't read them yet but was going to do this type of thing for him.  Tonjes has it covered.

Stuff Lately

Just got sucked into Sons of Anarchy.  Currently chewing on season 3.

I'm also utterly addicted to SkyRim (for months now).  I'm currently a level 20 High Elf Mage that's just turned vampire (by accident).  Not sure how to cure it since vampirism is a disease.  I thought it'd be fun, but being a vampire is kind of a pain in the ass and if you don't feed on a sleeping people in the middle of the night, you become blood starved and can't go into towns without an angry mob running you down.

Been painting this for this charity auction.  Not done with it yet.  Soon, though.

Been painting this as an exercise in oils.  Also as a "Suck It" to Jerm who was giving me some 'paint by numbers' smack talk.  This thing's been in the closet for years and I remembered it being there when Jerm brought it up.  Once done, I told him I'd frame it and he could have it.  Just for being a jerk. ;)

-Completely unrelated-
This text message exchange with Willie made me laugh recently.
Me: What's the farts[backspace]...eats?
Willie: Quesadillas. Vote for Pedro.  You?
Me: Rib-turd[backspace]...eyes and green beans.  Or Flats.

Since we're on the subject, every time I try to text, "What are you guys up to?" it always does this first:
Me: What are you tits[backspace]...guys up to?

Currently reading:
This
And this
And the front page article about Breaking Bad.  Would love to hang out with Cranston for an afternoon.

In dance class, we've learned two new steps for Tango and Waltz.  They have some silly fancy name but they're some nice footworky moves.  Makes it kinda look like we know what we're doing.  Its been over a year since I've had a pedicure but when I think to go in, I also remember how badly my toes get torn up from dancin'.  Seems a lost cause.

In Fat Saga news: I've been holding steady at -8lbs.  My eating habits are still going well but the occasional wrench gets thrown in from time to time.  Gym soreness is still awesome.  Been going twice a week.  Lame, I know.  Will light a fire to get in there more often....maybe.
FOCUS, ME, FOCUS!!

1000 Places To See

My mom got us this book a few years back.

I just went through it the other day with a highlighter and a pen and marked all the ones we've been to already.
Out of 1000.....I'm going to say maybe 970 entries are actual places.  The remaining are "local eateries" or "art scene" or "music scene" or "romantic hotels" type entries that cover a handful of places.
Out of those 970, I have about 70 of those highlighted as places we've been to.  Either one or the other or both of us.

Region not even touched: Great Plains
All the other regions are pretty evenly spread with us living in the southeast and traveling up the east coast pretty frequently.  Also, with the inlaws in the mid & southwest.  Recent trips to Alaska and Hawaii kinda round things out, too.

I also think we need one that covers the world....not just the States and Canadia.

Which reminds me.....
Also a few years ago, I bought a wall sized map so we could pin it with our adventures/places we've been to.
Matt's parents have one that I've always loved looking at and I wanted to do one just for us.
So I have the map, but still need to find a big cork board to mount it on and start pinning.
Sounds like a good weekend project, no?

A Discovery of Witches

OMG.  I finished this fucking book today.
About 6 or 7 months ago, my mom was all "this is the greatest book EVAR" and it took me like 5months to get about a third of the way in.
While we were in Hawaii, I made a damn good dent in the story and wrapped it up today while sitting on the toittie.

It started off pretty cool, setting the tone, all dark and moody and Oxfordy.
Its a witch who meets a vampire in Oxford.  There are also daemons.  They're all scholarly and ivy league and shit.
And they live among the boring ass humans no one ever wants to talk about in these stories.
You get to know the main witchy lady who pretends like she's not some all powerful witch.
And she meets some ancient ass french Dr. Vampire whose BFF is a non-political political gay Scottish daemon.
French Dr. Vampire is also a vintner.
He and Oxford Witch fall in love and then there's a shit storm and some time travel.
I'd hardly call it the best book EVAR, but it was pretty entertaining after the stupid crap.
And I don't mean the sappy shit.  The sappy shit was fine.
It was the scholarly witchy witch finding a hidden drawer in her old ass Dr. Vampire's desk and wondering why he'd keep "basic office supplies" in a hidden drawer that pissed me off the most.
DUMB!
There was also her fake bowing up on some random ancient vampire foe, saying "....and if he bothers me again..."....what!?  what, exactly will your dumb inexperienced ass do?!

The only plot mistake I noticed was around the beginning when Diana, the witch, throws her bag in a cubby at the library and then just seconds/minutes later has that same bag with her at study desk/table.
The grammatical errors/typos aren't nearly as bad as Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan/Hollows series.
Of which, Perfect Blood came in the other day and I'm 3 pages in on.
I should probably go ahead and get my red pen out.

The Discovery of Witches/All Souls trilogy continues with Shadow of Night coming out this summer and movie rights have been bought up already.

This One Goes Out To The exVAhitman

You're welcome.  ;)

WTH Weds: AHS & The Yellow Wallpaper

Matthew's been listening to me for years, talkin' about The Yellow Wallpaper.
A story that stuck with me after a community college literature class I took in '99? I think.
The imagery Charlotte described was fascinating to me....all the "what ifs" you could derive from it.

It made me so insanely happy that it was referenced on this week's American Horror Story.

And I had two "I told you so" moments...

1. When Tate unzipped the rubber suit.

2. When they committed crazy ass Viv.

I feel good about going into a mid-season finale....
wait....
are they doing that like they are with Walking Dead?

They said 'next Wednesday on...." right?
Eh...I still feel good.

On a side note, its a little bit funny that when American Horror Story was done, Matthew flipped it from the dvr to a random skinemax flick called Life On Top.
Then changed it to Time Bandits after shouting, "midgets!" just as Life On Top was getting to the final pocketchange* shot.

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*haha...get it?  pocketchange.  cuz softcore doesn't exactly have money shots.

Themeless Thursday - Book Review

Oh, man....It took me, what, like....7 weeks to get through this one?

That's HORRIBLE.

I suck at reading.

No, that makes me sound illiterate. Let me rephrase.

I suck at focusing on reading a book through to completion.

There are probably at least 2 or 3 books I can think of off hand that I read half of and never finished. This didn't happen much when I was a kid. Where the hell did I pick this habit up??

GAWH.

Anyway, just finished this one. You guys know I've been chipping away at it. Not that it was a shitty book or anything....it was good. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I just get distracted easily.

The book's narrated by a dude, an art journalist, who is fascinated by a beautiful & ambitious friend who gets sucked into the art world in pre-9/11 NYC. The book is basically his confession. He has to get this story of this girl off his chest and goes into telling about how she first worked at Sotheby's, networks, goes to work for a gallery, networks, sleeps with men, buys some art, gets tangled in questionable activities, sells some art, and decides, just before the towers fall, to open up her own art gallery. Its not so much that the story itself is enthralling, its the way Martin tells it, and how the story gets weaved and it leads to great imagery in your head while you're reading it.

There are even PICTURES!!

Full color of some of the works being talked about in the story.

How he only picked those 20+ to include....a sweet smattering, instead of an art overload.....I would've like to have seen his process for that.

This one gets 3 out of 5 Warhol Flowers.

Saturday Doodles

These are from the ArtStudio (ipad) tutorials (thanks, pannacakes).

Between these and trying to get this done....my weekend is delightfully full.

WTH Weds - Wig Day

Here's a hint for who I'm gonna be for this year's Superheroes/Villians Bomb.


Guesses will not win you anything, but they will be fun to read.

Media Monday - Summer Reading

Switching things up a little bit today.

Was just talking to someone about books and thought it would be good to share my reading list for this summer.

I just finished up Kim Harrison's latest in the Hallows Series. Oh, that Rachel Morgan. Always gettin' into shenanigans. Had a good ending and was a little bit different from recent episodes. I dug it. Its fun light reading - good for pool/beachside*.

Just started Steve Martin's latest. His writing is....quirky & sweet. And you can hear his voice reading it to you in your head (that's how it is in mine anyway). I've read both Shopgirl and Pleasure of My Company and loved them both.

Also on the list:

Carl Hiaasen - Nature Girl. I've never read any of his books and my friend, Sarah, gave me this one after I'd asked if she liked it. She read it in one weekend and said it was "silly".

Tom Wolfe - The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Going back to some classics this year and what better time to read about hippies than summer time!!

Hunter S. Thompson - Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas. Never read it. I read Curse of Lono years ago, but never this one for some reason. Thanks to Willie - I'm now craving all Hunter all the time. If you get a chance, watch "Gonzo" and "Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride". Both great documentaries on the man.

In The Blink of An Eye - Walter Murch. Picked this one up as a recommendation from Sean Patrick Flannery and bought a couple copies for my editing friends. Matt Kelland has already asked to borrow it. I'll read it after him, I reckon.

What So Proudly We Hailed - Blaine Staat. This one makes me laugh cuz I worked for this guy on the corporate dayjob floor some years back. Apparently, he's a future seer and there are a lot of things that he wrote about in this book that parallel present day issues. He blogs here, if you're interested in reading. Great guy who makes lots of great points to think on.

5 books.

5 is good right??

If I add anymore, you'll be updated for sure.

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*Unless you get distracted easily like I do when there's lots of primo people watching to be done.

Shadows & Light

We used to have this big ass oak tree that shaded my home office and filtered out some of the light as the sun starts to set. They tore that tree down because the root system was damaging our neighbor's foundation and had been tearing up pieces of the parking lot.
So now, from the hours of 5pm to about 7ishpm, my office is an easy-bake oven.

Being a dork, I started playing with my face (haha, my face), shadows, and iphoto adjustments and crap. (shut up, I was bored, home alone, and trying to decide what painting I wanted to work on.)













What I learned from this is..... DAMN!! I need to get my eyebrows done.
The shadows gave me some cool makeup ideas too, though not sure where I'd ever be able to wear it.... except HERE:

And we're going to check this out tonight, too.
Matt just finished reading the book and we keep hearing all the buzz....

Hope you enjoy your Friday night!!

Some crap I want for my birthday...

Anna asked me what I wanted for my birthday recently and then told me to post it.

Here we go.

1. Hack Slash Omnibus


2. A Massage - cuz I need one.


3. ....Ummm.....Geez - we're going to Amsterdam. That's a big wish come true. And I really don't need anything. Except a massage.

4. ....Still thinking....

5. JK Scrumpy's Hard Cider. Always welcome.


6. Left Hand Milk Stout. Always welcome.


7. Catwoman Books 1 & 2 3 4


8. A Vaughn Belak


That's all that I can think of....
More canvas is always good. Because then I can give you a gift in return.
See how that works out?

Reckon that's all for this year.

OH....a date with Nathan Fillion and/or Jeremy Sisto.

(same as last year).

*********************************

ps. Willie - we need to talk. I have an idea. heheheheh.

YAY NERDS!!

Just uploaded this.

Cheers!!

Templesmith Signings (the actual signings)

Templesmith Signing

Here's a shot of Ben Templesmith & a Big Dork.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a snap of Ben McCool (who was totally McCool...ha! see what I did there? nerd.) but I did get a short video clip of what the shop looked like while we were in there (later post). Here's the cover of the new book they were releasing/signing.
I'll scan some of my signings for a later post.

Let me back up a bit. A few months ago, I gave Brian all my Templesmith books to read, so on Monday, I reminded him that I needed them back so I could get them signed. He obliged but once receiving, there was one missing. Not just one....but The One. #1 of Wormwood. Sadness came over me but then I shrugged that shit off and looked down at the stack I had for him to sign wondering if I was gonna be That Fangirl.
So, when we pulled up to A Comic Shop, Matt offered, "How about we go check things out first and we can come back out to get these?"
Sounded good so we headed in and were greeted with smiles and a loudly buzzing, brightly colored comic shop.
I was almost paralyzed by over stimulation, but was quickly directed towards the free beer.
Of which I took no part of since I kicked the beer habit about a month ago to focus on there being less of me. I did, however, have a flask full of root beer vodka in my pocket.
Templesmith and McCool were busy signing and had some presigned copies of "Choker" at the keg table. Jeremy & I flipped through the ones that McCool had signed with amusing quips and picked about 4 of our favorites.
Then the 4 of us just started wandering around looking at everything and talking about our favorite books of late and which ones had penises in them and which ones had cool blood & guts, etc.
It got pretty stuffy in there, so I took a moment to run outside, get rid of my jacket, and grab my books.
There were about 7 total. 8 if I'd had my Wormwood #1.
When I came back in carrying my stack, the fella at the door was like, "Yeah...so you'll need to go over to the girl with the clipboard to help you out..." and pointed in her & Templesmith's direction.
I am That Fangirl.
Ben looked at my books and started signing - asking my name & if I wanted them personalized and/or with doodles, & which was my favorite - to which I replied, "Wormwood!" which made him happy (since he's the artist AND the writer on that one). I also explained that his art was the reason I noticed and bought up the 30 Days of Night series. He got to the hard copy of Fell and started to sign and I said that copy was my husband's and he asked if it should be personalized, and I yelled for Matt, who didn't hear me, so Ben wrote, "To Matt you deaf bastard..."
and then said, "You've got quite a bit, thank you....you helped me feed my cat and pay my rent...."
After he signed them all, I ran my stack back out to my car so I could continue to wander around the store and talk to people. Matt was in sports talks with both Bens at one point while Anna, Jeremy, and I were harassing people coming in and out of the bathroom.
Then I get a text from Brian saying that he found Wormwood #1 and was on his way to bring it. How friggin' awesome is that?!?
So I got THAT signed too!!
I am currently, the VERY proud owner of a collection of Templesmith signed books.
And this friggin' smile won't go away....
I'm such a nerd.

OH! And guess who else we saw there?
THIS guy!!

He walked by and Jeremy, Anna, & I were like, "That's the suspension kid!" (Matt was still talking to McCool about sports and shit).
The Suspension Kid turned around and looked at me so I walked up and said, "Hey, you're The Suspension Kid!". He blinked a few times and smiled and Anna & Jeremy walked up - followed by Matt- and we started talking about how he wasn't able to keep his hooks, and about some other body mutilation stuff that happened after we left the inkfest, and about tattoos, and he said his name was Daniel (although, he said he liked being called The Suspension Kid better) and that he's studying at UCF to be an anthropologist (not military as previously speculated). Thinking about it now, I don't think we gave our own names/intros because of all the crap we were talking about. I did get his email so that he could see his pictures. His buddy was there with him, the same one who, at the inkfest said, "Hey, will you email me these photos?" Which I did, which went unreplied to.

GREATEST TUESDAY NIGHT EVAR!!

What did we do over the weekend?

I decided to take a break from the interwebs (as well as my laptop) this weekend.
By choice.
After a few weeks of being glued to my laptop - I needed to breathe, count to 10, and just step back from it.
Unplug myself, so to speak.

So, Friday night - we grabbed up my mom, and drove out to see Chad Pollpeter at the Lake Eustis Museum of Art.
His show was really well paired with another local artist, Marcos Cruz.
Marcos also had an unveiling of a new piece. His stuff is mostly about perception and perspective. Very interesting stuff and makes you think. He'll also be featured in the new Amway Arena once its opened with pieces located on each floor of the elevator lobby area of the parking garage.
Pretty fascinating guy - has big ideas about alternative fuels and such. Check him out.

Anna & Jeremy met up with us and after the show we headed over to Crazy Gator's for beer and food and some interesting/dumb/fun conversation.
I think we were too loud and rowdy because every once in a while the bartender would pump more money into the jukebox and turn up the volume.
Asshole.

Saturday morning, Matt and I hung out at Mom's and worked on uninstalling some crap she had on her computer that made it run slow and wouldn't let her change out the desktop wallpaper. She rewarded us by fixing us eggs & toast.
We also watched Ireland beat the hell out of England in RBS 6 Nations.
It was a damn good game and Mom's first to watch so was fun listening to Matt explain rules and crap and Mom talk about how cute some of the players are. Rugby players are the shit, fo'sho'.

After that we went to the gym and then to Jersey Mike's (YUM!) and then I read the 2nd book of this Zombie Trilogy I've been munchin' on and Matt threw on Boondock Saints 2.
I fell asleep on the couch, but he said it got really cool towards the end.

Sunday, we arose and headed straight to eat some damn good dim sum at Chan's (makes me laugh that there's a reviewer named 'Nomnomnom' on there) with Anna, Blue Maiya and her family, & then Jess came in later with Carter for a quick munch on some buns & dumplings before a trip to Lowe's.
After gorging ourselves with unidentifiable and delicious delights, Matt, Anna, & I headed over to this Russian deli/market that just opened up about a month ago. Sausages, pierogies, and beer, OH MY!! Anna was in heaven. We tried some marinated peppers and mushrooms - they were yummy. So we bought a little bit of everything and plan on going back for more.
Will let you know how it all turns out when we cook it up.
After that we went to this asian import store (mostly anime/manga, toys, cards, asian movies, & crap) that was closing their store front to sell exclusively online (but their website isn't up yet that I can tell). We looked around to see if anything jumped out at us so we could take advantage of the 50-70% off sale, but alas, we walked out with nothing.
Ran over to Best Buy for ipod dock/speakers. Ended up with some JBLs and used up a gift card I had burning a hole in my pocket. They didn't have any replacement RockBand drum petals. A couple weeks ago, Matt & I were rockin' out so hard, I broke the damn thing and keep forgetting to pick up a replacement. So of course, when I remember, the store is out of stock.
Amazon.com, here I come!!
The rest of Sunday afternoon was full of napping, reading, cooking (pork tenderloin and peppers over brown rice) and topped off with a viewing of The Bank Job. I wasn't paying too much attention since I was hell bent on finishing that 2nd Zombie book. Which I did, just before heading to bed....

So, now that I'm back on the interwebs this week, I figured I'd share everything with those of you who care.
SHARING IS CARING!

BOOK!!

Just finished it!!

Here's my review:

It was good.

The End.

That would be funny if that's all I really had to say about a 650 pg book.
This was the most Clive Barker I've ever read. The very first Barker book I read was "Thief of Always" when I was like 13 or 14. After that I listened to "The Damnation Game" book on tape. That was pretty cool - good gross imagery. I really don't remember too much of either story.
This Barker book also had good gross imagery. In a nutshell, it's a classic 'good vs evil' story with a cast of a handful of characters and a bunch of spiritual themes & symbolism.

I think my favorite part was the Lix. I won't say anything more than that.

There's a good intro by Clive and its difficult to read it without hearing his raspy voice.

Moral of the story: There's only the mind and a show. A Great and Secret Show.

BOOKS!!

I've read quite a few books over the past month or so. Figured I should start giving reviews (aka. book reports).

Why We Suck: This was totally Denis Leary ranting - for about 200pgs. Seriously, I don't even know why he broke it up into chapters - it all sort of bled together, but it was a good funny read. My take aways are:
1. He hates Paris Hilton.
2. He's had a really interesting upbringing.
3. He hates Dr. Phil.
4. He really loves his wife.
5. His ADD entertains him.

This is a great book to give for Father's Day.
Matt & I went to see him back in April and the show was great. Yes, he sang "Asshole". He's done tremendous things via the Leary Firefighters Foundation. We've got a couple firefighter friends and they are amazing people. Hug one today.



Graveyard Book: This one I read because Willie is a huge Neil Gaiman fan and kept telling me about this one and Coraline and even last year when he told me that I had to read American Gods. Matt first introduced me to Neil Gaiman by telling me a little about the Sandman graphic novel and we saw Mirrormask and The Fountain when those came out. Neil's is an incredible story teller for both kids and adults. Most of his stuff has to do with a character crossing over into worlds/universes humans don't necessarily notice but are surrounded by at all times.
Neil says this one was inspired by The Jungle Book (heh...hence the title) and is about a boy who's parents get killed at the very beginning. His home becomes the nearby town graveyard and ghosts become his foster parents and guardians.
Adventure ensues.
I thought it was a little slow building but once you hit the halfway point, its all downhill from there and speeds up quite nicely. The Danse Macabre was my very favorite part.
Its quite good - one for the kiddies who love adventure and aren't afraid of the dark.





Dead Witch Walking: This one was a Christmas present from Matthew. Finally got around to reading it and it was really fun. At first I was like *eyeroll* "freakin' pixies?" but its a cool cop-like story only the cops are vampires, wereanimals and witches and....pixies (a boy pixy if that makes it any better and yes, he does say "Tink" at one point). There are fairies too and fairies and pixies don't get along too well. Its like a gang war out in the garden.
Anway, this book is first in the Hollow Series. Each of the books titled with a play on Clint Eastwood movie titles. Takes place in Cincinnati (further justifying my Ohio theory) and explains that vamps, witches, and the like have all been living among us - some in gov't, some as your next door neighbor....it only took a tomato virus epidemic to draw the line between them and humans. So now there are 2 rival agencies that work to take down the not-so-mythical creature law breakers and send agents out to right wrongs. Rachel is a witch who works for one of the agencies and gets mixed up with a bounty on her head and tangled in a city councilman drug ring scandal.
Overall this was a pretty cool read - the only part that bugged me was that Rachel, the witch, was so jumpy. If you're a badass witch that's seen all kinds of crazy stuff, would you still be jumpy?? I guess if you lived with a vampire, you might be. Reckon I'll find out more when the 2nd book comes in this weekend.


Currently reading "The Great and Secret Show" by Clive Barker. No opinion on it yet since I'm only on page 8. I actually got to page 12 yesterday at the gym but snapped myself out of a zone when I saw the word "medallion" and I was like, "wtf is going on??" so I had to go back to page 6 and reread all the weird stuff I'd just missed.
Stay tuned.

My cousin keeps telling me about these books by Karen Moning and is on my ass about reading them. So those will be soon - maybe after this one.
And then Pride & Prejudice & Zombies which everyone is talking about.
And then maybe it'll be time for our Alaska trip in July. I bought "The Historian" for traveling.

THE READING LIST IS LONG - BUT I SHALL BE VICTORIOUS!!